The Devil's Serenade
2.5/5
In a way, there is nothing super special about The Devil's Serenade. It is a pretty typical haunted house story: woman moves into inherited house, stuff of creepy nature ensues, big creepy origin of creepy stuff is revealed, all is resolved. Let's face it, this is a tough sub-genre – what can you do with a haunted house that makes it truly novel?
Cavendish does her best plot-wise in The Devil's Serenade. This is not 100% typical as in there is no well-to-Hell-in-the-basement or Indian burial ground or otherwise super cliched plot line here, but while her take on the Big Bad is interesting, the novel only turns out as an overall so-so. Why? Well, her writing is very much of telling and not showing variety. Granted, this seems to be a flaw in many books that have crossed my reading end-table lately, so maybe it is a trend I am not in on, yet there is a lot of explanation:
”Next Monday's fine,” I said. He grinned, showing even white teeth, which he wore collar length and neatly trimmed. Even though he was in work clothes, he managed to appear well groomed, despite a morning spent in my dusty cellar. My cellar. My house. Thanks to my Aunt Charlotte, I was not Mrs. Madeleine Chambers of Hargest House, Priory St. Michael. It had a ring to it and a certain grandeur. Pity Mr. Chambers – Neil – wouldn't be around to share it. Not for the first time I gave thanks that our divorce and all our financial settlements had been finalized two years earlier. I smiled."
And so on. I find this sort of telling is irritating, and it hurt the overall quality of the book, but mad props for the actual plot and ghostly origin story. (Seriously, there are tree people, but trust me, it works). While there was the obligatory am I crazy versus is something supernatural happening trope, this wasn't too heavily emphasized and so it was forgivable in Cavendish's novel. However, The Devil's Serenade would benefit from a bit less description in favor of letting the readers draw conclusions about setting, motivations, and characters at large.
On the balance however, this gets a meh. I do not have PTSD as a result of reading this, but I was not transported to a sublime place from reading this either. Depending on your dedication to this genre, you could probably give this a miss with little impact to your overall life. However, if you, like me, are a haunted-house-story aficionado, then you could do worse. Though it does depend on the price point.
Many thanks to Catherine Cavendish, Samhain Publishing, and NetGalley for the ARC.
Want to discuss? See my review of The Devil's Serenade on Goodreads!
